As a seventy-year resident of Springfield, Ill., I was amazed and amused that there was an article in the Wall Street Journal, a supposedly reputable, savvy business newspaper, touting Springfield as a great place to buy a house.

It is as if the reporter doesn’t know how to read, think, analyze, and ask questions before regurgitating something. WCIA TV writes:

Springfield was featured in a national publication as one of the best housing markets.

An article in the Wall Street Journal published earlier this month listed Springfield, Illinois as number 17 out of 300 for towns on the WSJ/Realtor.com Emerging Housing Markets Index for Winter 2023 for the best “housing markets expected to provide a strong return on investment and offer a nice place to live.”

Here are some tidbits about Illinois to determine if it is a great place to invest:

Illinois is being run completely by Democrats. They have the governor's mansion, all constitutional offices, and super majorities in the House and the Senate. They also completely control Chicago.

Somehow, I don't see the media or Eric Holder complain about gerrymandering in Illinois. 

The Illinois population has dropped for nine straight years, including declining more than 100,000 last year.

Illinois’ population declined for the ninth consecutive year in 2022, with a record 104,437 residents lost from July 2021-July 2022, according to estimates released Dec. 22 by the U.S. Census Bureau.

Democrats like to promote that Illinois is a sanctuary state that welcomes illegal immigrants, yet when they get a few thousand they whine like little children that they can’t afford them. 

Illinois tied for worst with pension underfunding at 52% or underfunded by $204 Billion.

What do Illinois Democrats do when they are $204 billion in the hole on pensions? The brilliant ones decided that Illinois would be the first state that covers Medicaid for illegals. They pretended the cost would be $2 million per year. The actual cost today is around one billion per year. So they were close….

Basically, Democrats do many things to chase away businesses and individuals with money and invite people in who will be dependent on the taxpayers. What could go wrong?

Illinois is one of the worst states for small businesses to do business with a rating of D plus.

Illinois has the 2nd highest effective property tax rate, behind only New Jersey

They brag that they have abortion on demand at all stages of a pregnancy, which is not supported by a majority of the people.

State law supports the castration of boys and removal of breasts from girls which is not a popular position

Creates the Gender-Affirming Health Care Protection Act. Restricts the State from: (1) applying a law of another state that authorizes civil or criminal penalties against any person for providing, authorizing, aiding, assisting, receiving, or otherwise allowing a child to receive gender-affirming care or referring a child for such care; 

The ruling Democrats support males competing against girls in sports and hanging out in girl’s locker rooms despite public opposition.

All Illinois Democratic reps in U.S. House vote against ban on biological men competing in women’s sports despite overwhelming public support for a ban

Illinois has tough gun laws yet very dangerous cities. Maybe the problem is that they let gang members and career criminals terrorize cities.

Illinois will become the first state to do away with cash bail

Illinois Democrats oppose helping the poor and minority children go to better schools. They are beholden to unions.

Illinois has the highest amount of spending per student in the Midwest, yet students are poorly educated. The solution is always more money because results don’t matter.

Data from the Illinois State Board of Education shows that across the state's public schools, only 29.9 percent of students tested proficient in reading, and 25.8 percent in math, down from 37 percent and 32 percent respectively in 2019.

They did whatever they were told on COVID and said it followed the science. There was no scientific data that said schools should be closed, children should wear masks, and social distancing of six feet was required. The permanent damage to children is immeasurable.

On climate change, they also do whatever radical leftists want. They never question or do research. Won’t it be great when people in Chicago that park on the streets, or in high rise parking ramps are forced to buy heavy, expensive, impractical, and inefficient vehicles powered by a flammable pollutant that they have to plug in every day? It will be even better when the Democrats force coal- and gas-powered power plants to close.

Democrats in Illinois are against right to work laws.  They force businesses to pay prevailing wages which have intentionally oppressed minorities and taxpayers for over ninety years.

Illinois is the second-most corrupt state, and Chicago is the most corrupt city, yet the media continually supports reelecting Democrats to remain in power. They also clearly have never cared about how Biden, Clinton and others line their pockets with kickbacks. It is no wonder we have so much corruption when the media only cares if they don't push leftist policies.

Illinois does rank high in the number of lawyers per 10,000 residents. That is certainly not a positive for businesses.

So, looking at the above information, why would any thinking person believe that cities in Illinois would be a great place to get wealthier investing in residential real estate?

As for the impetus for the report that Springfield, Il is a good place to invest: There is a report that says Springfield saw the median price rise 13.5% in a year. That doesn’t mean the price of all houses appreciated 13.5%. It only means that the small number of houses sold (112) during March of 2023 was up 13.5% . The denominator was small. The median price was only up to $138,500 after all these years while the National median price is $424,000.

Zillow shows that the median value of all Springfield houses was only up 3% from the previous year which is much lower than the high inflation rate caused by Biden’s energy and other policies. A home in Springfield that is valued at $137,000 would have to pay over $3,000 in property taxes. What a privilege,

Typical Home Values: $136,874

1-year Value Change: +3.0%

(Data through March 31, 2023)

If you look at the last 15 years, the value of Springfield homes has increased less than 2% per year from $107,200 in 2008.

People should not believe anything that reporters, politicians, scientists, experts, entertainers, educators, or anyone else tells them about anything because most of them are just regurgitating talking points pushing an agenda. Always do your own research and make sure you ask questions. Do not capitulate to get along because that will destroy our great country.